One Shroud
by R. Walker
Summary: What happened after Sozin's Comet? Everyone is grown up, and harmony has seemingly been restored. That is, until the mean streak in Zuko's family finally rears it's head in a last attempt to overturn the the world's renewed state of balance...
1. Epilogue

It had been several years since Fire Lord Ozai had fallen. The world had returned to a balanced state, despite the longest bout of warring and hostility it had endured thus far. Everyone had gone on to do something else, whether it was just going back to their hometown, or moving on to do something new. Either way, they had all taken their separate paths from that point on. No one had even spared a thought to the events up to the last passing of Sozin's comet, save for those who would start minor resistances against the new Fire Lord from time to time.

In particular, the new Fire Lord, Zuko, had moved on to marry Mai, have three children, and bring the Fire Nation, and eventually the entire world, to one of the most peaceful and harmonious eras it had yet enjoyed. With the help of the Avatar, who had also had three children, he also managed to rebuild hundreds of towns and villages that had been previously destroyed, and had found his mother on a small island off the coast of Ba Sing Se. Lady Ursa now resided in the palace with the rest of Zuko's family, happily helping Mai tend to her grandchildren.

In even more good news, there is still hope for the airbending race, as two of Aang's three children are airbenders. One of them, the middle child, is actually capable of both airbending and waterbending, being a mix of the two races. No one knew why he was able to do so, they just assumed it was because his mother was a waterbender, and his father was the avatar. Either way, all of the avatar's children, two boys and one girl, were raised like normal air nomad children were hundreds of years ago, the only difference being the lack of other nomads and the extinction of the air bison, and the fact that the oldest of the three was merely a waterbender.

The Earth kingdom was restored to it's original state, though the Earth King decided he would rather continue traveling the world. Instead, he insisted on handing the Earth Kingdom over to King Bumi, who died shortly afterward at the ripe and inordinately old age of 124. Bumi, having no successor, had stated on his deathbed that he wanted Iroh to rule, but Iroh decided that he would rather have the Order of the White Lotus, which his nephew had recently become a member of, rule the Earth Kingdom. The Earth Kingdom became known as the Earth Republic shortly afterwards.

Not too long after the war was over, Fire Lord Ozai went blind, supposedly reaping the combined effects of losing his firebending abilities and having stayed in the utter darkness of his cell for years on end. Azula was taken to a high-security prison at a disclosed location. The only person in the world who knew her location is the now strapping young explorer, Toph, who, though she had been blind since birth, had still made great strides in the art of earthbending and explored many corners of the world. Toph had hidden Azula so well, not even the guards at her location knew what they were guarding. It is rumored that she is imprisoned in the remains of the secret bunker once discovered during a raid of the fire nation on a previous solar eclipse. It is even said that, when the palace city falls silent, one can still hear her laughing, as though she'd had one last trick up her sleeve that she was waiting for the right moment to pull out.

Everything was going along so well, it was almost scary. And yet, no one could have realized that the one thing that could have brought everything back into chaos, the key to overturning the entire world's state of harmony that the avatar and his allies had worked so hard to build, was lurking within Fire Lord Zuko's very own palace...


	2. Ghost

Tara was sitting up in her bed, holding the covers up to her neck and looking cautiously out the window. To the rest of the city, it was just another quiet night. Peaceful, with nothing that might disturb one's sleep, save for the chirping of crickets that would go away with the passing of each summer. Midnight had passed, the entire city was sound asleep. All except Tara, who wouldn't dare take her eyes off the window.

The nightmares never really seemed like dreams. When Tara had regular dreams, the images and people would become so warped, sometimes taking the form of something entirely different altogether; the places would change and everything would become so unrealistic, so distorted. But these nightmares were more like memories, forgotten with the coming of peace, perhaps, but still trapped within the palace walls. Everyone stayed the same. Everything was always within the parameters of reality. In particular, the memory she had seen during the night in question was a memory of her father and one of his friends-both of them much younger, probably in their teens. They were in the courtyard, both facing her in a defensive stance. Her father's scar was much redder back then, she noticed, as Miss Katara was much thinner. Their image was marred-there were sparks, flying around their faces. A crack of thunder, and her father was running to save the young waterbender from a strike of lightning. The only off thing about them is that they were memories of someone she didn't know, someone who had gone unmentioned within the fire nation palace…

Morning, in the capitol of the red nation. As per usual, the royal family was in the banquet hall, eating a breakfast of bread and fruit. Tara was staring down at her plate investigating the number of holes in her ciabatta roll, with an equally debatable number of bags under her eyes.

"Eat your breakfast, Tara," said Lady Mai, momentarily calling her daughter out of her hypnosis. "And take your elbows off the table, better should be expected of royalty."

"But mother," she said coolly, disregarding any kind of respect she may have been taught, "You're the one who was always complaining about your parents being so strict with appearance and manners." She smirked, adding a tint of false ignorance to her tone. "I simply fail to see why you demand the same thing of us." Tara's mother gave her a stern look.

"I would think you owe your mother a little more respect than that, young lady," said Lady Ursa, who had come into the banquet hall just a few moments earlier.

"Yes, grandma," Tara sighed, rolling her eyes. The way Tara saw it, all she had to do was be patient - her family was ignorant, self-contradictory, and hypocritical, but she was sure they would be of some advantage to her sooner or later. It was always odd being with her family, though. They always looked at her, worriedly, as if she reminded them of something they had originally intended to push out of their minds.

It was only after breakfast that she was able to go back to her end of the palace, which was always something she looked forward to. Unlike her sisters, she had a personal practice room, having been given an end of the palace that had originally been cut off. She had never understood why, particularly, it being a bigger and more elaborate portion of the Fire Lord's immense fortress. But whatever the reason, it had been opened back up to allow Tara sleeping quarters and more-than-adequate living space.

Tara walked slowly out of the banquet hall, unlike her sisters, Rina and Seiko, who continued running happily out into the courtyard. As she continued following her sisters, Mai and Ursa came out of the banquet hall behind her.

"I'm worried about her," said Mai, walking with Ursa along the balcony. "There's something about Tara that strikes me as familiar to…" Mai trailed off, remembering her childhood visits to the palace, the cool, clever personality that Tara seemed to have inherited.

"I understand your concern," said Ursa, turning to Mai and putting a hand on her shoulder. "I dealt with the same issue." Ursa smiled, illuminating her gray hair, her old, expressive face which conveyed so much knowledge. "If she is raised right, she will be a good asset in the family."

"I'm still unsure," said Mai, biting her lip in a contrastingly rare expression of emotion. "One mistake, and she could prove to be a real monster."

It had been a while since Zuko had been to Iroh's grave. He had been buried so fittingly next to his son, Lu Tien. About a year ago, maybe a bit more than that, Iroh had died peacefully in his sleep. Many would speculate on what he had dreamt that night, though the truth would always remain a mystery. The way Zuko liked to think of it, the last dream he'd ever had was of his younger days as a father, when Lu Tien was just a boy.

"Uncle," said Zuko, kneeling at Iroh's tomb. Zuko stayed silent for a moment, smiling as he recalled so many happy memories of his uncle. "I want to say something, but...as I've always had trouble expressing myself," He smiled sadly, looking at the ground. "I don't know how." He paused, biting his lip in an attempt not to cry. "You've always been a great teacher, and-" His voice cracked. He sighed, gaining more control over his emotion. "I've been putting this off, but…I want to give this back." He pulled a small, golden ring out of his robes. It had flames on either side, painted red on the edges, with a hair pin going trough the center. "This was meant to be worn by the prince of the Fire Nation," he said, setting the artifact on the ground before the tomb marker. "I guess you could say I don't need it anymore."


	3. Schadenfreude

*A/N: "Schadenfreude" is German for malicious joy, or taking pleasure in another's suffering. This word was adapted in English at some point, I'm fairly sure.*

"Oh god, Rina, what the hell are you doing?" Tara laughed, as her sister, a hot-headed and clumsy girl (a trait earning much favor from her father), attempted to climb the tree by the fountain, only making it up a meter or two before falling ungracefully into the water and scaring away the birds.

"Shut up, Tara!" Rina yelled, blushing and tensing up as Seiko giggled from under a nearby tree. Tara laughed, ringing out a familiar tone of schadenfreude that was almost greeted by the palace walls.

"Ah-Tara!" Mai shouted sternly from her seat a few meters away, biting her lip at the almost-mention of the name of "Azula" in place of "Tara". "We don't use words like that in this family!" She leaned back on one hand, shaking a finger on the other hand at Tara.

"Would you rather I say 'fuck,' mother?" She said bitterly, having heard the previous exchange between Mai and Ursa, and decided upon hearing it to demonstrate her independence. Her sisters had stopped what they were doing, both of them turning and staring at Tara with a hand over their mouths.

Mai stayed silent for a while, biting her lip again as all the possible reactions she could have had went flying through her head. "Come with me, Tara," said Mai stiffly, gesturing to Tara as she got up and walking towards the fountain. Tara watched her useless mother stride silently over in her long, scarlet gown, grabbing Tara's arm and pulling her along towards the steps. Tara rolled her eyes from behind her mother's back, annoyed with the predictability of it all. It was always occurrences like this that would incite a stern talk from her mother, marked by her grabbing Tara's wrist and leading her over to a different area, a flurry of fabric flying out at her heels as she walked over briskly with her deep red gown. Tara didn't need to glance back at her sisters at this point to know that both of them were staring innocently as old Ursa insisted they ignore what was going on with her.

Mai kneeled down in front of Tara when she reached the steps, putting both hands on Tara's shoulders and sighing stressfully. "Tara," she said, looking up at Tara's blank and emotionless face. "Look at me."

Tara continued gazing inattentively at the marble columns of the palace, arms folded in front of her as if to show she was bored and had absolutely no patience regarding what Mai had to say. "Why?" She said, remaining completely impassive. "You don't seem to like me as much as Seiko or Rina. Didn't that old hag ever tell you favorites was the worst thing you could do to your children?" She finally took her eyes away from the column, gesturing with her head towards Lady Ursa.

"Tara, don't talk like that," Mai said, taking on a more stern and immediate tone. "Now, look at me." Tara reluctantly looked Mai in the eyes, rolling her head dramatically until her topaz gaze landed on her mother. "I understand you're a very smart, independent young woman," Tara readjusted her arms, having gotten tired of hearing such statements from her mother. "But proper behavior is essential if you ever want to have any friends." Mai looked at Tara for a second, who had made a point of letting the whole ordeal go straight over her head. "Okay?" Mai tilted her head downward, eyeing Tara inquisitively.

"Yeah, mom." Tara said routinely, refraining from saying "whatever." Her mom smiled, getting up and turning back towards the fountain. Tara didn't want to follow her mom, but then she had grown tired of playing in the courtyard anyway. She had a whole gym waiting in her end of the palace. "I'm gonna go practice my forms now," She said, arms still crossed.

"Okay," said Mai, unphased by Tara's decision to withdraw. "I'm sure you're capable of finding your way up yourself."

_Oh, I'm capable,_ she thought, turning away from her mother and smirking horribly, a glint of malicious joy shining off of her golden eyes. _Capable of more than you can ever know…  
_

"Lady Toph! What a pleasure!" Zuko laughed joyfully when she burst in the door, her green and yellow robes glowing in the sunlight that shone through balcony doorway. Zuko stood up from his seat at the head of the dining table, spreading his arms in a friendly welcome and walking over to his close companion. "It's been so long! No doubt you only came for the food though, ha ha!" The young woman was smiling radiantly, walking over to Zuko, laughing and roughly punching him in the shoulder. They both laughed, Zuko punching her back and rubbing his own arm. It had been six months since they had last been able to see each other, and both were overjoyed at the opportunity to meet for dinner with Zuko's family.

"Nice to see you've loosened up, Hotshot," she said happily. The guards were always a bit disturbed at their interactions, particularly that Toph was allowed to call the fire lord 'Hotshot.' "How's everyone else?" Toph shouted gleefully to the rest of the banquet table, which was filled with all of Zuko's family. She walked over to the other end of the table, taking the guest's seat a the other end of the long dining table. Mai and Ursa smiled back at her from either side of Zuko, while Rina looked up at Toph adoringly and Seiko stared blankly at the wall. "Where's Tara?" Said Toph, noticing the empty chair next to Mai.

"Ah! I told her we would be having dinner with you tonight." Mai looked back at the door, a concerned look on her face. "I told her not to be late!"

"Forms?" Toph asked, grinning, as she felt the vibrations of Tara's small feet from the other end of the palace. "That girl likes to fight." She remembered the last time she had heard Tara. Despite being a little scary, Tara was spunky, and she liked that. Last time she had been in the palace, Tara had stayed in her gym so long that Toph had offered to go get her. When she found Tara, she was still in her gym, practicing her techniques. They had talked on the way back, having actually had a decent conversation on their walk back to the dining table on the balcony. They talked mostly about their love of fighting and exploring, and Tara even mentioned wanting to travel the world someday. She said that the palace bored her, and that she much preferred to find new and different challenges each day. She was kind of imposing-the way she talked always stuck with you, like the taste of metal after you've removed your tongue from a flag pole in the winter-but it was traits like that that always made for a good businessman (or, in this case, businesswoman). To Toph, Tara was, for lack of a better word, cool.

It was as they noticed she was missing that Tara was on her way up to dinner. She knew she was late, but she hadn't been in much of a rush, partially because she never liked the meals the night's chef would make, and partially because there was a small hope that Toph might come and get her. Normally, this was her main reason for wanting to lag behind the family. This time though, she had another reason to want to arrive late to dinner, much bigger than anything else she would likely ever have to look forward to. Tara had discovered something in the desk in her room, something revolutionary. Something she didn't want anyone else to see until the right moment…


	4. Day and Night

"I know I'm late," started Tara, hiding her tone of disinterest and using the manners required of her by her mother, "and I understand my mistake. My deepest apologies to our wonderful guest, Lady Toph." She bowed, going through the motions and purposefully taking the seat closest to Toph, across from Rina. It seemed the only people who ever appreciated her presence were Toph and Sokka, and Sokka appreciated everyone's presence anyway - usually disregarding all formalities, insisting on blurting out bad jokes and acting as though he and whoever he happened to be with had been friends for life. Tara still liked both of them, despite the fact that the only other person who never got annoyed with Sokka when he visited was her father, and Tara only really liked Sokka because he was so accepting, despite the fact that he was probably afraid of her too. Toph was really Tara's favorite, and probably her only friend, simply because was she was so understanding. And unlike everyone else, she wasn't afraid of Tara.

Not that Tara cared much for dinner, what mattered to her was getting back to her room and studying what she had found. As time went, she remained silent, only talking when was necessary and thinking about the pages of notes she had found in a drawer in her desk. They described a new branch of fire bending, one that had been left untampered for centuries. It could allow you to create illusions, read minds, even control other elements. You could even control minds, using this new form of bending. If you harbored this bending ability, you could deflect even the strongest attack, simply by snapping your fingers. All you had to do was see the shadows around you.

_Shadowbending…_it was too perfect to be true. And yet, somehow, the word held a faint heir of possibility to it when compared with these notes. It was, indeed, a great discovery, but Tara couldn't shake the feeling that she was playing into someone else's hands. What if it was all just a fake? What if it was all just a false concept, made by someone ruled over by delusions? That wasn't entirely impossible, looking at the past few families that had inhabited the fire nation palace - not to mention, the notes she had found were written during the war period. Yes, these notes were, among other things, a war strategy. And if someone had created it, created a way to read minds, they could have used it at any time. And they were probably still using it now. This wasn't just a great discovery. This meant that there was still something hanging in the void, some memory of the war that left the world in such disorder, that was now threatening the apparent peace and stability her father had worked so hard to create.

After dinner, the kids all raced off to wherever they had their sights set on, Rina and Seiko running into the kitchen to see if there was any leftovers from dessert that they could have, Tara running up to her room to look over the shadow bending notes one more time. Ursa wandered off to her bedroom, claiming she had been experiencing back pain and needed early sleep. This left Toph, Mai, and Zuko, who promptly decided to take a walk in the palace gardens, as a sort of friendly reunion.

"I was thinking," Toph started, hands in her pockets as she strolled along. "My next trip was going to be through some of the outlying islands in the Earth Kingdom. And I was wondering if Tara might want to join me. "

"I see no problem with it," said Zuko, looking at Mai, who looked slightly more worried. They all stopped walking somewhere along the rose hedges.

"I'm not so sure…" she said, tightening her grip on Zuko's arm. She thought about all the possible circumstances in which the worst might happen to Tara. "How long would you be gone?"

"Four months, at the most." She continued walking again, staring at her feet as she usually did, the garlands of red lanterns casting an odd light on her green robes. "It's just a short trip around some of the old air nomad ruins, I thought Tara might get a kick out of it."

"Why not extend the offer to my other daughters as well? I'm sure we could do without them for a few days," said Zuko, laughing at his own joke before being immediately scorned by his wife.

"Eh," said Toph, smiling and looking up at Zuko for a rare moment. "I can only deal with so many kids." Mai Zuko laughed again, and this time Mai joined him.

"So," Mai began, "Why do you think Tara would enjoy this so much?"

"Well, you know…" Toph shrugged. "When I was younger, I always wanted to get out of the house, and Tara seems like she's a bit unhappy staying at the palace all the time…"

"What makes you say that?" Mai inquired, another worried look on her face.

"Last time we went to Ember Island for a reunion, she was ecstatic about being there, and she's mentioned before that she likes to travel and see new things." Toph remembered her childhood, how she had always been locked up in her parents' mansion. "And think about it - she's spent her whole life in this castle and the only thing she really enjoys or cares for is fire bending. I think this might be a good outlet for her."

"Well, you do have a point…" Mai put her hand to her chin in thought. "I might be able to get her a break in her tutoring…"

"We'll see how things unfold," said Zuko, smiling brightly.

The first step before shadow was light.

That, at least, was what the notes implied. And yet, no matter how long Tara would focus on the contrasts of the colors in the room, or stare at an open flame, the revelation of shadowbending didn't seem to come. Tara got the feeling that she was doing something wrong, missing some important piece of information that might help her establish a connection between what she knew of fire bending and what the notes were saying.

Tara inferred that it might have been a question of theory, and had even snuck into the royal library for answers. But, as it turned out, there wasn't much use, since the restricted royal archives only really held information regarding history and the real versions of scrolls whose replicas were in the main library. It wasn't of any help.

As the days passed, she put up with her family, waiting for the answer to come to her, to no avail. She was even told that she was invited to go on an expedition with Toph, which she happily accepted, and, although she was excited, she still had a month and a half before she left, and she could not focus on anything but the shadowbending. She spent hours upon hours each night, searching through the notes, attempting to find the connection between fire and shadow. But the closer she felt she got, the sooner it seemed hopelessness would creep up on her.

For a short while, this new idea gave her comfort - it may have stressed her out, kept her from sleep, and consumed a considerable portion of her life, but it was better than sitting around bored, just waiting for the sun to set and the nightmares to come. It gave her something to work towards, something to believe in. And had she not had her one great realization within the next few days, she might have continued this way for the rest of her life, constantly chasing an impossible dream. What was the connection between fire and light? The question she had been attempting fruitlessly to answer for a full month finally came to her within a single instant.

There is no connection. Fire is not connected to light, because fire _is_ light.

She was in her room, sitting on the floor with the notes spread out all around her, when the realization came to her. She looked at one of the many candles lighting the room. Holding her hand out to the candle, she let the flame crawl up her hand and fed the fire with her energy. She watched it with a curious smile on her face. Her hand closed around he flame, as if the squeeze the fire like clay. And when she opened her hand, the fire had become a small speck of light, like a tiny ball of energy that was waiting to burst. She had only heard legends about these, these little balls of energy that formed when there was a lot of energy compacted into a really small space. She had heard that the only people who could do this were those with great knowledge of fire, and that the last person to use this technique in combat was former Fire Lord Ozai, when he used it against the avatar at the end of the war. But the person who had written these notes had taken a new viewpoint on it, and from there had invented an entirely new form of bending from it. This person knew that these little spheres weren't just highly concentrated fire. No, these anomalies, these 'balls of energy,' weren't fire at all. They were pure light.

_Well done. _

A sudden voice echoed through Tara's head, as if someone had entered her mind and was using it to talk to her. Tara looked up, darting her head around the room in an attempt to find the source.

_You're not going to find me here,_ said the cool voice, her tone decorated with a hint of a smirk. _But I can find you._

Tara heard her door unlock. She turned around slowly as the door opened, a figure silently apparating through the doorway. And there stood a young woman, looking to be about 18, with a crooked smile on her face. Her makeup, her hairpin, her eyes even- - all of them were the same as Tara, except for one thing. This woman, who was leaning in her doorway, had such beautiful hair.


End file.
